How to HOOK in the Reader by Leaving SPACE • by Natascha Biebow

When crafting picture books, I’m always delighted when the end product looks seamless. All that agonizing over the details of story, character, plot, pacing, word and image choices, layout, design, format, typography and so much more is ready to be launched into the big wide world, bound into pages of promise. 

 

All Are Welcome by Alexandra Penfold and Suzanne Kaufman

Promise because there is something else that must now happen – when the book lands into the hands of young readers, it must connect.

 

For a book to deliver that magical, immersive, transportive reading experience that lingers and resonates, the picture book must become more than the sum of its parts, more than just the literal elements on the page. To do this, it needs something key – the reader.

 

Now, that delicately crafted balance between the words and pictures on the page (seamless, we hope) plays out to make something synergistic – because when the reader gets involved, the child creates the ‘more’.  

 

"We share stories from the heart."
From All Are Welcome by Alexandra Penfold and Suzanne Kaufman

 

The reader is tasked with actively encoding the words and the pictures, listening and looking, making connections and filling in the gaps to make meaning.

To do this, authors and illustrators need to leave SPACE for the reader:

 

In the PICTURES

 

Rosie's Walk by Pat Hutchins is a classic example of where a visual narrative
allows space for readers to participate and add to the story narrative.

  

The minimal text tells one story, while the pictures tell another . . .

. . . creating lots of humour!

In the WORDS

Love by Matt de la Peña and Loren Long

The open-ended, lyrical text allows young readers to imagine each moment and
add to an individualized interpretation of what 'love' is:

". . . everything smells new, and it smells of life."

In this instance, the illustrator depicts a boy sharing a hotdog with a man on a bench,
but the reader might interpret these words in many different personal or imaginary ways.

 

In the MESSAGE

 

 

Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de La Peña and Christian Robinson

The boy in this story is going on a bus journey with his grandmother - where?
The vivid details included in text and illustrations encourage the reader to join in
in creating the meaning, in building up the sense of the characters and their
community, and filling in the special relationship between CJ and Nana. 

 

Building on this, in the poignant final scene, CJ is glad to
be with his community of familiar faces –
the words & pictures allow space for readers
to figure out where they are and why it matters
without needing to be told in an overt message.

Even in the FORMAT.

Where's Spot? by Eric Hill is a pre-school classic!

 

A lift-the flap guessing game format is delightful fun to share with the youngest readers
and leaves lots of space for dialogue and for the reader to
imagine possibilities while interacting with and adding to the story.

 

 

Surprise! The SNAKE is in the clock, not Spot!

 

HOW do authors do this? (And how can you do it if you’d like to write amazing picture books?)

WELCOME the reader in

One Smart Fish by Chris Wormell

This spread at the beginning of the book introduces the main character, one 'Smart Fish',
who looks so ordinary - how could he be a hero? the reader might wonder.
I wonder WHY he's amazing? The author invites the reader to engage with the story
and welcomes them into the narrative to go on a journey together.

Invite readers in to be part of and even engage in creating the story. 

 

Winged Wonders: Solving the Monarch Migration Mystery
by Meeg Pincus and Yas Imamura

In this story, Pincus invites readers to participate in the question of who solved the age-old
mystery of where the monarch butterflies go every year? In a series of spreads, the
open-ended questions allow readers space to engage with the narrative,
accumulating facts as they turn the pages to come to their own conclusion –
more than the sum of its parts.

A Bit Lost by Chris Haughton

Squirrel is trying to help Owl find Mummy.  In each sequence, Owl describes Mummy:
"My mummy is VERY BIG. Like THIS!" The author allows space for the reader
to be part of the story and imagine how Mummy might look with these attributes.
The pictures also allow space for the reader to imagine both Mummy's
appearance and guess what might come next. And because the reader
is part of the narrative, when they turn the page to find . . .

. . .  a bear (!) it's instantly funny.
The pictures here allow space for the reader to reconsider their guess
and delight in the joke when Squirrel mistakenly asserts, "Here's your mummy!" - since
young readers will know an Owl's mum looks nothing like this -
but also readers will empathise with Owl's disappointment at still not
being reunited with Mummy.

Can you create an OPENING IN THE NARRATIVE where young readers can find meaning?

AVOID over describing: the delicate balance between words and pictures takes craft to achieve – the story must stand on its own when read aloud, but also leave space for the pictures and for young readers’ interpretation. The choice of what to include is just as important as what to leave out. It may take some often-frustrating tinkering.

 

Bob Goes Pop! by Marion Deuchars

In this story that explores the theme of what makes a good artist, Bob is an artist who
gets into a argument with a famous sculptor called Roy. Bob says Roy's art is just
everyday objects except bigger. Roy bets Bob he couldn't even make a sculpture if he tried!

In this scene, every time Bob creates a work of art, Roy's is seemingly better.
The author allows space in the pictures for readers to look closely and intuit this.
Bob's splodgy rough round the edges artwork gives an impression that it is
less slick than Roy's, even through the text doesn't tell readers this.

Looking closely at Bob's body language in the pictures also allows space for the
reader to connect with Bob's emotions and understand how the main
character's frustration is building until his desperation leads him to cheat.

It is important to know the backstory of your narrative and your characters’ world and, above all, your character’s motivation, but then to choose carefully what you will include. Use specific, vivid details, but only share those that will give meaning to the story.

The Iridescence of Birds by Patricia MacLachlan and Hadley Hooper

In this nonfiction picture book about the artist Henri Matisse,
 the author poses one long question - why do painters paint what they do?

Carefully choosen details in the words and pictures on each spread
illustrate vivid and specific everday experiences that influenced the artist
to eventually produce his colourful collage artwork.

The narrative is filled with spaces, where the reader
must fill in the gaps to make the sum of the whole to arrive at
the inspiring 'a-ha' moment at the end.

 

Conversely, avoid the pitfall of including too little information. If there isn’t enough context, emotion, or details, readers have nothing to hold on to so they won’t be invested enough in the story to add meaning. It's key to set up the action to arrive at a satisfying ending.

AVOID overstating the story’s theme or message. This leaves no space for the reader! If the author has done their job well, there is no need to tell readers what the take-away is, because the plot and character’s emotional journey to overcome the plot problem and navigate high stakes will serve to create a feeling and a take-away meaning that the reader is able to intuit.

Invite the reader to

 

PREDICT what will come next

Neon Leon by Jane Clarke and Britta Teckentrup

Neon Leon is a chameleon who doesn't fit in. Throughout the story, the author
creates space for young readers to interact with the main character's actions
and empathize with how he's feeling. In this spread, Neon can see something that might
be a hint of something the same colour as him. Is this the answer he's been looking for?
The text ends with an ellipses (ooh, I wonder...), which when combined with the page turn,
adds space for the reader to engage and predict what might come next.

OBSERVE the pictures for narrative clues that will advance the plot and
your characters’ motivation story arc.

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff and Felicia Bond

All day long, the boy has been following the mouse, making sure it has what it needs.
The simple words underline a multi-layered visual narrative in which the mouse
goes from one thing to the next, starting with a cookie
that needs a glass of milk that needs a straw and so on,
all the way full-circle to the ending, where the mouse is thirsty and needs . . .

. . . . a glass of milk! The narrative leaves space for the reader to look closely at the pictures,
and add depth, nuance and humour to the interpretation of the story.
The emotional journey of both the mouse and the boy and their relationship
is largely apparent in the pictures.

And importantly, leave space for ‘I WONDER . . . “ so readers can have the pleasure of that a-ha moment and of working stuff out for themselves, filling in the meaning.

Old Rock (is not boring) by Deb Pilutti

Old Rock has been sitting on the same spot at the edge of a forest for a long time.
Tall Pine, Hummingbird and Spotted Beetle are sure it must be very boring.
But Old Rock has surprisingly actually had a very interesting and exciting life!
Here, Old Rock tells them he's pretty good at doing somersaults.
It seems inconceivable given how Old Rock looks on the page here.

The page turn is a powerful tool to create space.
This pause allows young readers wonder and imagine what Old Rock
might look like doing somersaults.

A bit like this perhaps . . .

. . . but perhaps unexpectedly landing like this!
In this spread, the reader can use the space left by the minimal words to imagine how rock
might have felt when he landed here after his exciting somersault adventure,
and what it would have been like living during the time mastodons roamed the Earth.
Importantly the reader might say, "I wonder . . . where Old Rock might go next
and where he might end up after that?"

To do all this, is to TRUST in the reader.

That wonderful synergy that you get in an excellent picture book must come from the fine balance between the words and the pictures, but also from the SPACE creators allow for the reader.

What examples from your favourite picture books and those you’ve created can you share with our blog readers?

 

 __________________________________________________________________________________________

Natascha Biebow, MBE, Author, Editor and Mentor

Natascha is the author of the award-winning The Crayon Man: The True Story of the Invention of Crayola Crayons, illustrated by Steven Salerno, winner of the Irma Black Award for Excellence in Children's Books, and selected as a best STEM Book 2020. Editor of numerous prize-winning books, she runs Blue Elephant Storyshaping, an editing, coaching and mentoring service aimed at empowering writers and illustrators to fine-tune their work pre-submission, and is the Editorial Director for Five Quills. She is Co-Regional Advisor (Co-Chair) of SCBWI British Isles. Find her at www.nataschabiebow.com

 

An Ode to Libraries - Wendy Meddour

This month we are delighted to have Wendy Meddour as our guest blogger. Wendy spent many years teaching English Literature at Oxford University but took a little break so she could concentrate on writing children's books. Only (thankfully for us readers) that little break turned into a big break and, though she's back teaching at university, she still loves writing for children and really can't stop.


I wrote 'How the Library (Not the Prince) Saved Rapunzel' before they started shutting them all down! I hadn’t planned to write a book ‘with a message’. I was just writing a love letter to the places I loved:

The library was always a magical place for me. And on occasion, it was also my child-minder. I hated going into the city centre when I was little. All those stuffy shops, shopping bags and legs. So when Mum needed to go and wrestle with the crowds, I would ask her to leave me in the children’s section, cross-legged on the floor reading books. (What can I say? Things were different then). It was one of the highlights of my week. Shelves upon shelves of colour and thought – just waiting for me to jump in and get lost.

The library was my ‘Faraway Tree’: I’d climb its branches and know that it would always take me somewhere new. It was my passport and the place of my dreams. And I was allowed to take some of those journeys home. For free! Those childhood years, in which I sat cross-legged on the floor reading books (instead of being bruised by shopping bags) led me to where I am now ...  

I took my paper pockets of thought home and read them in the top of the airing cupboard. Don’t get me wrong: I’m a sociable soul and my outside-of-the-airing-cupboard childhood was a very happy place. But whilst I was curled up on the top shelf behind the towels, reading book upon book upon book, I learnt empathy, humour, compassion & escape! For a child in a fairly cramped space, my world became extraordinarily large. This undoubtedly helped me on my way. I did pretty well at school. I travelled. I married someone from completely somewhere else. I got a doctorate and taught English at Oxford University. I made a living out of reading and writing books! Libraries led to lots of good stuff. In fact, I hold libraries and their contents largely responsible for the shape and colour of my life! And my life to date has been rather colourful. So thank-you libraries - you were my Mrs Doubtfire. My Faraway Tree. My very own Nanny McFee. 

To conclude a post about libraries, it seems appropriate to end with 'Story Time'. So here's a little snippet from the end of my picture book. Beautifully illustrated by the very brilliant Rebecca Ashdown, it says all I want to say:

Now Rapunzel has changed and it makes her wince,

to think that she used to just wait for a prince!

That she used to just sit.

That she didn’t move –

with nowhere to go and nothing to prove!

For now she reads three books every night

Under the beam of her bedside light:

She can tell you the distance to the moon,

    she can do Scottish dancing & play the bassoon.

She can speak in four languages, skip and play chess,

she can knit tiny egg cups and cross stitch a dress,

She knows the difference between crows and rooks –

And all because of ...

  ... LIBRARY BOOKS!

So don’t just wait for a prince to show,

He might turn up, but you never know.

Just pop to your library and borrow a book –

There’s so much to find out if only you look:

But don’t just sit and wait and stare . . .

When there’s more to life than growing your hair!

To keep up to date with The Bookseller’s campaign on Twitter, follow: @fight4libraries

To keep up with me (now I'm out of the airing cupboard), click here

To read a great article about libraries by Neil Gaiman, click here 

And to see a jolly photo of Einstein, don't go anywhere! 

Some thoughts on rhythm in picture books - Moira Butterfield

When I first started to think about this blog I was going to relay the good news that rhythm, offered to small children in the form of songs, poetry and picture books, helps to develop the brain. Now, thanks to the BBC, I’ve discovered that rhythm is even more important than that. Turns out it’s vital to humankind!

Good rhyme helps to anchor a text beautifully and is great fun to read, of course, but this blog is about rhythm – a pattern of beats in a sentence that makes it easy, natural and fun to read. It does a lot more than that, it seems. 

A couple of weeks ago I saw a TV programme (Science Club) in which a small baby had a little hatful of brain sensors popped on her tiny head. Experiments proved that her brain was not merely responding to rhythm but predicting what would come next. The baby had the innate ability to follow sound patterns, which would in turn help her to develop language (and possibly maths, too). This, the scientists suggested, was what separated humans from the rest of animal kind and might have helped them to start communicating in a sophisticated language when everything else was still squeaking and growling. In other words, it seems we’re hard-wired to pick up on rhythm and it helps us eventually to learn to speak.

"Hey Mum, my brain's getting smarter!"

So a tiny baby is already receptive to rhythm, and scientists studying brain development confirm that rhythm helps small children to grow their neural pathways. Very young humans grow their brains at a phenomenal rate, sparking up these neural pathways all over the place – like a tree growing branches. These brain connections help us to do things. Babies start off not doing very much, and as they grow into toddlers and beyond they make more and more neural connections and so start engaging with the world. Rhythm apparently helps to create the neural pathways and repetition helps to strengthen them.

Perhaps all this is why adults instinctively sing nursery rhymes and ‘coo’ to babies. It most definitely suggests that it’s a good idea to read and reread rhythmic text to all small growing children, even the tiny ones. It turns out that babies quickly start to look intently at lips to work out how to copy the shapes that talking makes. So repeated rhythmic sentences (rereading that seemingly simple but well-crafted picture book regularly) can only help.

Science is beginning to prove what we already innately sense. I like to think of parents in prehistory starting it off, perhaps imitating a rhythmic bird call for their babies, then trying it on a drum.


For my part, I think rhythm has an amazing power to help memory. Many’s the time I’ve marvelled at how my brain recalls great chunks of meaningless non-rhyming pop lyrics from long-forgotten songs that weren’t important to me. They just stuck in my head. I think they were glued in by the musical rhythm.

Apart from having these learning superpowers, rhythm in a sentence is vital to someone reading out loud, of course. It makes the reading smooth and natural. Bad rhythm snags the reader, like tripping over a stone.

Rhythmic sentences could be said to be a form of spoken music– the structure of a tune without the tune. In fact, a good rhythmic picture book text is easy to sing, and after countless reads of the same picture book to my sons I’ve been known to do exactly that, to vary the experience for us all.

So rhythm helps the reader to make the experience of reading a picture book an engaging one for all concerned.

To sum up, rhythmic sentences – those that have a good working beat pattern like the beats of a song line – are a powerful tool for helping children learn communication, and they are a vital aid to the reader.


"I think I'll read War and Peace next."

In my next blog I’ll do some deconstructing of the best rhythmic non-rhyming sentences in picture book examples, to discover what works best. I’ll also be examining where problems can occur. All recommended text examples welcome. 

In the meantime you can bask in the knowledge that by writing rhythmic sentences you are not only making them easier to read but you are helping to develop children’s brains.

You probably knew so, but now scientists have said so!

Reading for pleasure by Abie Longstaff

My 11 year old son has just learned to read.

I don't mean he has just learned to make sense of all those squiggles that are letters, I mean he has just learned to READ - for enjoyment and for himself.

He has always loved books and being read to.

He likes to make up stories (mainly while jumping on the sofa or building enormous armies of assorted figures). He likes to talk about books and characters and plots and he has a whole shelf of books on cd he snuggles down every night listening to. But, until recently, he has never enjoyed the act of reading.

His dislike for reading began shortly after he started school. I don't blame the school (his primary school was lovely) but I do think something is missing in the system, in the way we start our children on the curriculum so young. My boy was just 4 when he started school, one of the youngest in his class, and all he wanted to do was play. My bouncy, rambunctious child who couldn't sit down even to eat dinner, was suddenly expected to be quiet and still on the carpet, to learn his letters and practise writing. He was in no way ready for it (and I pity the poor teacher who had to control him.)

In my son's 4 year old mind the act of reading soon became work, not pleasure.  Reading was associated with homework, with effort and with chores. This association continued through primary school. Luckily he kept his love of books, which I encouraged by buying him comics and puzzle books and story cds. He also loved me reading to him each night. He was very capable of reading and would do it when he had to, he just couldn't see any joy in the process.

Alongside this he loved playing on the computer, the xbox or the ipad - for him these things were fun, nothing to do with homework or school.

Then, on holiday he borrowed his auntie's ipad. On it was the Hunger Games and, bored one afternoon, he started to read. He read and read and read till the end. I don't really know what did it - it could have been the book itself  - but I think what finally kick-started his reading was that the ipad was not associated with school or work, it was associated with fun. Whatever it was, he read all three Hunger Games books in the space of a month (while I silently danced a little jig).
 
Shame he didn't pick a classic but it could have been much worse - 50 Shades of Grey was stored on my sister's ipad too.

Reading Hairy Maclary as a new born baby